Kripalu Yoga in the Schools Team

KYIS Program Team

Janna Delgado, BFA, E-RYT 500, KYIS Program Leader, combines her training as a Kripalu Yoga teacher, Integrative Yoga Therapist, Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant, and AFAA-certified fitness instructor with her background in acting to create playful, collective experiences of yoga on the mat and out in the world. Since 2008, Janna has focused on enriching the lives of adolescents through yoga in her role as Program Leader on the Yoga in the Schools project for Kripalu’s Institute for Extraordinary Living. Janna uses the insight gained through her 15 years as a yoga teacher and her background leading outdoor experiential education programs for adolescents to make yoga accessible and meaningful to teenagers.

Iona M. Smith, MEd, CYT 500, holds a BA in human ecology from the College of the Atlantic, an MEd from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and a 500-hour yoga teacher certification from the Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. She cocreated the KYIS curriculum and currently co-facilitates the KYIS Teacher Training, and also serves as a KYIS Yoga Educator for KYIS research studies. Iona’s background includes being a high school biology and health teacher and a Kripalu Yoga teacher.

Samantha Wyman, RYT 200, Intern for the Institute for Extraordinary Living, holds a bachelor’s degree in public health and international development from the University of Vermont and a 200-hour yoga teacher certification from Kripalu. Prior to being at Kripalu, Samantha spent time traveling and volunteering throughout Asia working with a variety of health and social initiatives. She is particularly interested in increasing accessibility to yoga and is excited to work with the IEL as a whole and the Yoga in the Schools program in particular.

KYIS Research Partners

Sat Bir S. Khalsa, PhD, is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in the department of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His projects have focused on the therapeutic applications of yoga in a number of settings, including public schools, and for several conditions, including insomnia, performance anxiety, and PTSD. Dr. Khalsa is one of the most active, skillful, and experienced researchers in the yoga world today.

Bethany Butzer, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Dr. Sat Bir Khalsa’s lab. Bethany directs research on the Kripalu Yoga in the Schools program to evaluate yoga’s effect on child and adolescent mental health. Bethany’s research background spans several areas of Positive Psychology, and she is also an author, speaker and yoga teacher. www.bethanybutzer.com

Lisa Conboy, MA, MS, ScD, is a social epidemiologist affiliated with Harvard Medical School’s Osher Research Center and codirector of research and faculty at the New England School of Acupuncture. She is currently involved in a number of studies investigating Ayurveda, yoga, and traditional Chinese medicine. Published manuscripts from work at Kripalu, include “Ayurveda and Panchakarma: Measuring the Effects of a Holistic Health Intervention” and “Moving Beyond Health to Flourishing: The Effects of Yoga Teacher Training.”

Mindy Miraglia, MS, Research Consultant for the Institute for Extraordinary Living, combines her 25 years of experience in market research and strategic marketing with advanced studies in holistic healing modalities to explore the behaviors and attitudes of research subjects who have participated in IEL yoga programming. Mindy is responsible for collection, analysis, and reporting of evidence that documents how yoga curricula impacts yoga students, teachers and host sites. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Hofstra University and a bachelor’s degree in holistic nutrition and a master’s degree in natural health from Clayton College of Natural Health.